1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a remote controller capable of preferably applying, for example, a control signal to control of electronic equipment such as a TV receiver and the like, an equipment operation system allowing signal transmission between the remote controller and electronic equipment, and a remote control method.
2. Description of Related Art
In the past, a remote controller, based on infrared wireless transmission of control signals, has been used for remote control of video equipment such as TV receiver, and of audio equipment. In tuning operation of a TV receiver or the like using the remote controller, a user selects any of the numeral keys provided on the remote controller, and presses it down. By this operation, a remote control signal allocated to each of the keys is transmitted as being carried on infrared radiation from the remote controller to the TV receiver. The TV receiver has, as being preliminarily set therein, tuning positions corresponded to the remote control signals, and effects switching among broadcasting channels on the basis of the infrared signal received from the remote controller, to thereby complete the tuning operation.
There is also known a system having electronic equipment such as a TV receiver and an audio-visual (AV) amplifier provided with a plurality of input terminals, and external equipment such as various recorders, players, tuners and the like connected to the input terminals, so as to allow a single remote controller to remotely control the various equipment. The remote controller used in this system can effect switching not only of the TV receiver or the AV amplifier, but also of any connected external equipment. In switching of the equipment to be operated, the user has to begin with input switching operation on the TV receiver side. For an exemplary TV receiver having provided thereto four input terminals from a first input terminal to a fourth input terminal, correlation is preliminarily made such that the first input terminal is for a DVD (digital versatile disc) recorder, the second terminal is for a video tape recorder and so on. The connected external equipment are selected by switching the input of the TV receiver. This sort of remote controller has provided thereon operation switch keys selecting equipment to be operated such as the TV receiver, DVD recorder, AV amplifier and so forth. The user has been allowed to operate target equipment, after switching the input of the TV receiver and operating any operation switch key on the remote controller so as to change modes of the remote controller.
An assumption is now made on a case where a user, who has been viewing a ground-wave analog broadcasting, wishes to change the operation into DVD play on a DVD recorder. The user first makes a switching operation for enabling input of the DVD recorder connected to the TV receiver. Then the DVD recorder is selected by the operation switch key on the remote controller. A remote control signal corresponded to the DVD operation is then sent on infrared radiation from the remote controller to the TV receiver. The user is thus allowed to make operations of record, play, stop and so forth of the DVD recorder.
Japanese Patent Application Publication (KOKAI) Hei 5-236366 describes a technique of outputting, from a remote controller, operation codes for peripheral equipment connected to a TV receiver.